Disc Dem

Sunday, 16 April 2017

Disconnecting Some Dots

Connecting
the dots originated as a children’s puzzle, where each dot is numbered and if
you draw a line between each dot in the correct numbered sequence, a recognisable
picture emerges and you become an instant artist.

Wikipedia’s definition includes...... "connecting the dots" is used as a metaphor to illustrate an
ability (or inability) to associate one idea with another, to find the
"big picture", or salient feature, in a mass of data.

For me,
the “Big Picture” of South African politics is just a tangled web of lies and
deception that has no believable pattern, nor recognisable form. So instead of continuing
to pursue the connection of wildly divergent dots, I have tried to disconnect some
of them to see if an alternative picture emerges when they are reconnected
differently.

Our
generally recognised “Big Picture” in South Africa is that the Gupta family has
captured Jacob Zuma, and through him all the essential organs of State. JZ is identified
as the ignorant, pliable puppet with the Gupta family pictured as the puppet
masters who are pulling everyone’s wire – as it were.

But
what picture emerges if we connect the dots differently? What if Jacob Zuma is
the Puppet Master who “captured” the Guptas with promises of wealth beyond
imagining provided they acted as his surrogate bankers and political
facilitators?

First
of all, our President may be undereducated, but do not make the mistake of
believing he is ignorant or stupid, and my dot-reconnecting conjecture is that
his dynastic dictatorship game-plan began over 20 years ago.

To
follow this particular line of dots I have retraced some of the significant
timelines in JZ’s rise that are bringing him ever closer to realising his
ambition to establish a Zuma dynasty.It
is quite a long story that goes back some time, but if you have the patience to
follow these dots with me then I hope your endurance will be rewarded with a
completely different perspective of where we stand today, and where, perhaps,
we might go tomorrow. So, once upon a time.........

1 - Jacob Zuma and Nkosazana Dlamini: Early Period (1982-1999)

In
1982 JZ married Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini.

In 1994
Dr Nkosazana Zuma as she was then called, was appointed Minister of Health in
South Africa’s first democratically elected government under Nelson Mandela.

In 1996
the Ministry of Health funded a “dangerously inaccurate” anti-Aids play, Sarafina
2, which heralded the first sniff of possible corruption surrounding the
Zuma family. According to a 1996
New York Times article “..... the Cabinet
Minister in charge of health has been caught lying to Parliament. The
production contract turned out to have gone to a good friend of hers. Proper
bidding procedures were ignored. The private donor she said had paid the bill
had never heard of the play.”

Over
the next couple of years the Sarafina controversy and a 1997Virodene
scandal refused to go away for Nkosazana. Meanwhile, Jacob had eyes on the
Deputy Presidency that would be open to him at the end of Nelson Mandela’s term
of office in 1999,but which ran the risk of being derailed by the smallest hint
of familial corruption or ineptitude.

So, in 1998,after 16 years of marriage, and four children later, Jacob and Nkosazana
divorced over “irreconcilable differences”, which is the least controversial
and most convenient method of severing marital ties without any further attached
scandal.

Interestingly,
it was only after the divorce that Nkosazana introduced the hyphenated
Dlamini-Zuma nametag. Perhaps indicating an ongoing connection beyond marital
boundaries? Or indicating a politically inspired divorce born of like minds,
rather than their supposedly irreconcilably different minds?Separate but still connected?....... Hold those
thoughts for a while......

In 1999
under the Presidency of Thabo Mbeki, JZ was duly appointed Deputy President of
the Republic of South Africa.In the
same year, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was redeployed by Thabo Mbeki
from Minister of Health, to Minister of Foreign Affairs.My own suspicion is that this appointment was
most likely influenced by JZ, not only to initially distance Nkosazana from the
Sarafina/Virodene spotlights, but perhaps more importantly, to improve her
overall political profile. After all, in any government worldwide, Foreign
Affairs Ministers and their equivalents have a much higher profile than Health
Ministers.

2 - Jacob
Zuma and the ANCYL (1994-Present)(“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the
future.”)

In
December 1994 Jacob was elected as National Chairperson of the ANC, as
well as Chairperson of the ANC in Kwazulu-Natal. These appointments put him in
close association with ANC Youth League structures across the country,
and in particular the KZN branch. It is therefore not entirely surprising to
learn that in 1996 a Zulu was elected as National President of the ANCYL.

What
might be surprising, is the name of that Zulu is Malusi Gigaba, our
recently and controversially appointed Minister of Finance. There is also no
doubt that the ANCYL were influential in the appointment of Zuma to the Deputy
Presidency in 1999.

Gigaba
held the ANCYL position for eight years until 2004, when the baton was
passed to another familiar political name – Fikile Mbalula, who was recently
reshuffled from the Sports Ministry to become our latest Minister of Police.

In 2007
at the ANC National Convention held in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, the ANCYL, under
the leadership of Mbalula vehemently and vociferously supported Jacob Zuma
against Thabo Mbeki’s campaign to serve as ANC President for what would
amount to a third, essentiallyunconstitutional term of office.

In 2008
at a chaotic ANCYL conference marred by tactics of intimidation and violent
confrontation between opposing factions, Julius “I-will-die-for-Zuma” Malema,
supported by his predecessor Mbalula, was controversially elected as the new
National President of the Youth League.Up
until this point it is quite clear that Jacob Zuma was the Puppet Master who had
the ANCYL dancing to his tune. They really were prepared to go to any lengths
to protect him.

The
picture changed somewhat after 2011 when Julius Malema was re-elected
unopposed, after his only
contender, Lebogang Meile, declined to stand against him. Zuma recognised that
Malema’s increasingly high-profile and revolutionary
rhetoric had not
only loosened his own grip on the puppet strings of the Youth League, but also
threatened to derail his long term dynastic
plans.

So in 2012 reasons were found to have Julius expelled from the ANC,
putting JZ firmly back in the driving seat.[1]In the resulting fallout, all Youth
League structures were disbanded in 2013. They were only re-established in 2015
after JZ had found himself another pliable puppet in the form of a somewhat less-than-youthful
Collen “Oros” Maine.

From
here onwards the modus operandi of the Puppet Master and these puppets is clear.
Nothing more needs to be added except, in closing this segment, to tell you
that the quotation in the heading “He
alone, who owns the youth, gains the future” came from one Adolf Hitler
- just saying.

3 – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and the ANCWL (1991-Present)

While
Jacob was busy with the Youth League, Nkosazana was busy with the Women’s
League where she was instrumental in establishing their national structures,
and from 1991-1993 served as chairperson of their Southern Natal Region.

By now,
you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that during her three years as regional
chair, her committee included Bathabile Dlamini, our less-than-capable
Minister of Social Development who suspiciously avoided the chop in JZ’s latest
Cabinet reshuffle.

Interestingly,
during the very same 2013-2015 period that the Youth League structures
were out of commission, the Women’s league also failed
to hold their required congress to elect new leadership. This
brings me back to the nature of the relationship between Jacob and Nkosazana.
Were these events coincidental, or were they the Puppet Masters waiting to
align their new puppets?

Whatever
the answer, in Bathabile Dlamini’s election as chairperson of the ANCWL
in 2015, Jacob and Nkosazana got the puppet they both needed to move their
plans forward. What is unbelievably crass
about this is that we have a Constitution that strongly promotes gender
equality yet, in Bathabile Dlamini, we have the leader of a powerful women’s
organisation who will go to any lengths to protect a patriarchal sexist, who believes
that a particular item of female attire represents an open invitation to have
sex. (Remember
Kwezi?).

4 - Jacob Zuma and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (2000 – Present)

Because
of the above overlapping timelines, it is difficult not to connect the dots in
a picture that shows there has been some careful planning in the way that Jacob
and Nkosazana have moved themselves forward. The King and Queen executing a
subtle coordination of moves with outcomes that always ensured there was a Plan
B if Plan A failed.

Another
example - in June 2005 when Thabo Mbeki fired Jacob Zuma because of his
links to a fraud and corruption scandal surrounding the $5
billion Arms Deal, it was reported that Mbeki first offered the vacant Deputy
Presidency position to Dlamini-Zuma, which she declined. It was a
seemingly inexplicable decision because had she taken the position then, it
would have been the clearest, cleanest and quickest route for her to become
South Africa’s first female President, possibly as early as 2007.

In my picture,
however, that would have required their ditching of “Plan A”, which was for
Jacob to be the first of them to assume the Presidency, and moving them straight
to the implementation of “Plan B”, which is for her to ultimately assume the
Presidency. However, this would have
left no fall-back Plan “C” position, and had there been any resistance to a
female becoming President at the 2007 National Convention in Polokwane,
their dynastic plans would be immediately spiked.

Her
decision not to accept the vice-presidency in 2005 therefore only makes
sense when you consider that the ANC’s National Convention was a relatively
short 18 months away and, although politically wounded, and with the Youth League
fully behind him, Jacob Zuma was still strong enough to challenge Mbeki.It was therefore worth risking the wait, for
the sake of their future dynasty.

Much of
Zuma’s perceived strength could also be drawn from the general ANC membership’s
discomfort with Mbeki wanting to serve an unconstitutional third term as
President. They perhaps saw another African dictator in the making, and
seemingly worked on the principle of “anyone but Mbeki”, which played directly
into Jacob Zuma’s hands.

In 2007Dlamini-Zuma had an apparent change of heart when she agreed to run as Mbeki’s
Vice Presidential candidate at the Polokwane Convention to be held that
December. This about-turn alone makes a case for rejoining the dots differently.By waiting the relatively short period of 18
months, the Zumas were able to keep both A and B plans in place. If Jacob won,
he would become President first (Plan A), and if he lost, Nkosazana was
appropriately positioned to still eventually become the first female President
of the Republic of South Africa after serving as Mbeki’s deputy (Plan B).

Another
give-away that the relationship between JZ and NDZ is perhaps not all that it appears
to be, is that Nkosazana became the only Mbeki “supporter” to be retained by
Jacob in his first 2007 Cabinet. Not only that, but in 2009 he moved
her from Foreign Affairs, where she was fairly anonymous in fulfilling her
duties, to the Department of Home Affairs. While many thought this was a
demotion, it actually gave her the opportunity to claim a great success in
turning the chaotic Home Affairs Department around. However, it appears that much
of the work had already been accomplished by the Director General, Mavuso “Mr Turnaround” Msimang, starting as early as 2007.

Nkosazana’s
“administrative success” at the Department of Home Affairs was used in 2012
as the spring-board from which the Puppet Master, Jacob, pushed her to controversially
contest, and win, the position of Chairperson of the African Union. A position she
never seemed entirely comfortable to hold, and one that was overshadowed
by “...African rivalries, suspicions about her
abilities, andthe reasons why her former husband, Jacob Zuma, pushed so hard for her
to get the job”...

There
is no doubt that Dlamini-Zuma is a seasoned politician, but there is also a
shadow of the Puppet Master’s hand to be seen behind every career move she has
made. Join the dots differently and you might glimpse the almost invisible hand
of her ex-husband, subtly but steadily orchestrating the perceived improvements
in her political stature, in preparation for her for eventual succession to the
Zuma dynastic throne.

But is
she really Presidential material? Rebecca Davies wrote a very telling article
on this subject for the Daily
Maverick in 2015, which reflects that Dlamini-Zuma’s performances have been somewhat less
than stellar wherever she has been.

Returning to the redrawn “Big
Picture”, you must have noticed that the Guptas have not yet featured. This is
because I find it almost impossible to believe that an immigrant family of
opportunistic traders with flexible morality are in any way capable of
derailing Zuma’s master-plan, laid out above, by “capturing” him so quickly and
easily.

When then
Deputy President Jacob Zuma met the Guptas, reportedly for the first time in
the 2002/3 timeframe, not only was his dynastic plan already well
underway, but it was also a time when I believe the Guptas would not have had
enough money to tempt the Zumas away from their ambition.

It is
therefore more likely that the Guptas were trying to curry favour (pun
intended) with Jacob Zuma and, strategist that he is, I believe JZ would have
seized the opportunity to convert them to his own cause with promises of wealth
beyond their wildest dreams, as long as they fronted his own ambitious State
Capture end-game.

Our
President is renowned for putting others in the firing line while staying a
safe distance away from any potential fallout, so when it comes to bribery and
corruption of State officials is he likely to approach an official such as Mcebisi
Jonas, or Vytjie
Mentor himself, or is he more likely use a surrogate, or puppet?

If you
accept that Jacob Zuma is the Puppet Master hell bent on securing if not a
dictatorship, at least a dynasty, then you must also accept that when he laughs
that trademark laugh, he is not only mocking the opposition, but also mocking
the ANC for not seeing through his plans to use them for his own purposes.

If you
accept the redrawn “Big Picture”, or even some of it, then you must conclude that
Jacob and Nkosazana do not love and are not loyal to the people of South
Africa. Nor do they love and nor are they loyal to the ANC, the organisation
that has trusted them for so many years to further the cause of social justice.
They are peas in a pod, two like minds whose only ambition is to perpetuate and
cement the Zuma dynasty.

Even if
half-true, the message to the ANC leadership is that these two cadres have
abused their positions and brought the ANC into disrepute by bringing both the
ANC, and the entire country, to the brink of disaster. It is well beyond the
time for you to take action to remove them and their puppets before it is too
late for all of us.

To ANC
MP’s who may shortly be asked to vote in a motion of no confidence, your
smallnyana skeletons will be as nothing compared to the devastation that a Zuma
dynastic dictatorship will bring, so feel free to vote your conscience. All
will be forgiven if you prevent the Zumas from destroying our country, and
everything the ANC has worked so hard to achieve.

[1]An unintended consequence, I
believe unforeseen because of the arrogance of JZ and his cohorts, was that
this action led to the formation of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – a
political vehicle being used by Julius Malema to conduct what amounts to a
personal vendetta against Zuma. But that
is another story for another day.

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About Me

After retiring early, I became involved with the local ratepayers association. This is where I gained first-hand experience of the damage that can be done by proportional representation politicians at local government level. I have become increasingly frustrated with the widening disconnection between party-dominated politicians and the people they (mis)represent.